24.   Breathing Demystified.                              6/20/03

    Breathing, from the perspective of using a technique for restoring health, wellbeing and maintaining our body alignment, is a favorable, comfortable and non intrusive way of opening up. Much of what we hear about of breathing practice carries with it many dogmas both spiritual and philosophical with notions that tend to be for development of calming, peace and a form of alignment with the divine. Most of what I read about breathing has the ring of doing something sacred or spiritually significant, which is fine, but breathing can also be a direct practice for us without a lot of information being transferred.

    Sometimes when giving breathing sessions to restore alignment, I find the need to explain that breathing can be very active as we work with it and is not necessarily to calm you down or make you feel like you are entering a meditative state. Even though it could be argued that the energetic use of breathing does lead to being more peaceful and calm. Breathing is a multidimensional activity that we can use for many different practices but, at the same time we are breathing all the time with out thinking about it. If we are going to understand how it is used to bring about better physical alignment and outcomes then we are adding a contemporary knowledge to the mix.

    Letting go of information about breathing and just feeling how the bodies alignment is effected by the specific use of breathing is an immediate experience that can bring us some new insights about our being in the body. This extends in to many activities that we engage in whether it is meditation, sports, work or play. Everything we do physically is affected by how aligned our body is. Once we understand what our physical alignment is and how we can maintain our alignment by breathing everything else seems to fall in to place.

    The current focus on the mindfulness practice of being with the breath that Thich Nhat Hanh has presented illustrates a dynamic of focusing on the breath. However, if the only purpose one has with breathing is to be mindful and there is no awareness of alignment then the practice becomes one of effort. If you feel that you have not focused on your breath then you might say “I have not been mindful” or “I must be with my breath more” which gives one the impression that it is a struggle to be with the breath. If you are using breathing because you know how it helps you to be aligned and how it makes the physical experience more joyful then being mindful comes with the territory. Gay and Kathlyn Hendricks work with diaphragmatic breathing as a program for working with breath as a daily tool as we are engaged in living. It seems the emphasis is more on maintaining our energy level and health while also having the pranayamic benefits.

    Along with recommending that we take sessions with a lot of the new, what are called, Breathwork modality’s I will also suggest trying lessons in singing like opera or the more exotic Tuva singing. Both forms require deep diaphragmatic breathing and at the same time it will get you to make more sound in a world where “silence is golden” Haaa!

    When I first started to work with breathing I would observe the action of my breathing while I was engaged in talking. By placing a finger lightly at the sternum while talking and listening, I found I could maintain breathing action while communicating instead of suspending the breath which seems to be a habit many have. Holding our breath could be a habit from conditioning phrases like “pay attention” (sounds like a costly admonition) or “listen carefully” etc., which tends to freeze our attention instead of allowing us to free flow and have our attention on several things at the same time while also maintaining our breathing action. We may even try this while reading so the words are coming to us instead of us sinking into the computer screen or pages of a book and holding our breath.

    In conclusion I would say we are always breathing and our awareness can be with the breath as we are doing the chores. To feel you are doing something that is for others, Like working at a job, misses the opportunity to develop a productive habit of feeling our body with the breath and making use of the time to become more immediate or attentive to the magic of the now. In this sense we are performing in life as opposed to practicing. If we can say that nature has a built in intention it is; to have the body functioning as informed by evolution.

~~~~~

“When I am working on a problem I never think about beauty. I only think
about how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution
is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.”

 
R. Buckminster Fuller, (1895-1983)

Posted by Harmon 6/20/ 2003

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